More encouraging news

I was going to wait until we came back from PA this weekend to say anything, but I can’t wait that long. Even though Piper slept during out entire visit yesterday, it was a very exciting visit, just for the fact that we learned of 2 very exciting (for us) items of news. The first thing is that Piper is no longer on contact isolation! Amazing! Which means that Reagan an I will no longer have to wear those obnoxious medical gowns every time we visit. Nice work Piper. The other thing (you may want to sit down): Piper’s ventilator rate has been dropped down to 10. The doctor upped her feedings and she has been tolerating them well. So she figured the extra caloric intake would be able to offset the increased work Piper is doing to breathe on her own. Ok, now for the kicker: because piper is doing so much of the breathing on her own, this Sunday, they are going to try her on only trache collar (no vent), for about 2 hours. Yes, you read correctly. No vent for 2 hours. When Reagan and I heard the news, we almost thought it was a mistake at first. We thought that they got Piper mixed up with another baby. We are both elated. It is still a question of how well she will do, during the 2 hours, or if they will even make it 2 hours. But I mean, off the vent? I still can’t get over it. If someone would have told us 2 months ago that Piper will be ready to start weening from the ventilator pretty soon, I would have laughed. I guess that Reagan and I both had just kind of accepted the fact that she was always going to need it. So you can probably see why I was so anxious to write about it before our race. Now that I got that out, I’m off to pack, for the big weekend. We are heading down to Philadelphia a day early with some of our friends to peruse some historical sites and grab a cheesesteak before the race tomorrow. Reagan is going to try to get a 1:45 time tomorrow. I’m just going to try to keep up with her. Wish us luck!